Welcome to another week of The Runback. Have you been enjoying The Duckpin? Do you have comments or suggestions? Do you want to write for us? Let me know at theduckpin@gmail.com. And please be sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. Thanks in advance.
Podcast Episode #9
This week’s episode is an important discussion about post-election America. A must watch episode!
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News and Politics
Count the Votes: The most important thing is to count all validly cast votes. No matter who wins, the Republic and the Rule of Law comes first.
The Coup Is Coming From Inside The House: Dear Donald; It’s because Republicans left you off of their ballots. Maybe they didn’t all go to Biden.
Winners and Losers (So Far) From the 2020 Election: Some people won. Some people Lost. The circle of life.
Sports
Like a Box of Chocolates: College football fandom is usually unpredictable.
The NFL At the Halfway Point: Let's take a look at some of the interesting things and trends as we're halfway through the season.
Shameless Plugs
My latest for The Capital addresses Kin Klacik's doomed Congressional run and the disastrous obsession with boat and car parades.
The Monday Thought
Now that President Donald Trump has been defeated for re-election, the conversation is invariably going to turn to what’s next. Particularly for the Republican Party.
There are now basically two factions in the Republican Party: traditional conservatives and supporters of Trump’s left-wing populism.
Both of those ideologies were on the ballot on Tuesday. And traditional conservatism did far better than Trump’s brand of populism did.
Trump’s populism tends to favor a certain type of Republican. One who lives in smaller towns, in smaller jurisdictions. So take a look at this map and the outcome should not surprise you.
![Twitter avatar for @PatrickRuffini](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/PatrickRuffini.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FEmKGUeJXIAAz0s8.jpg)
Trump’s populism is more popular than Republicans in places with low populations. In places with higher populations, traditional conservatism in more popular than Trumpism.
Here’s another fun map, from Maryland, showing that Congressional Republicans outperformed Trump is almost every corner of the state.
![Twitter avatar for @TadeuszMrozek2](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/TadeuszMrozek2.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FEmWeM9BW8AERSBm.jpg)
Only in two out of 24 counties did Trump run ahead of the Congressional candidate, despite the fact that in many corners of the state the Republican nominee was an unknown entity.
What does that mean? It means that if the Republican Party is going to have a future, it must abandon populism and return to traditional conservative values.
Now look, I’m not suggesting that we throw Trump supporters out of the party. That’s not what I’m saying at all. Those voters joined the party for a reason, probably as much related to distaste and distrust of Democrats as it was Trump. But that doesn’t mean that the party should be catering to Trump voters either.
Republican candidates and messaging should be focused on what works electorally; smaller government, lower taxes, free trade, national security, and respect for life. Five basic pillars that elected three Republican Presidents and scores of Senators, Congressmen, Governors, and other state and local officials.
Some Trump supporters will talk about “how many people Trump brought into the party.” I’m skeptical that there will be a long tail on the number of people that Trump actually brought into the party. Many of Trump supporters who became Republicans were loyal to Trump, not to the GOP or the traditional GOP ideology.
But populism, as Trump campaigned on, is dead now. It never really meant a whole lot anyway; the most base definition of populism is “a range of political stances that emphasize the idea of "the people" and often juxtapose this group against "the elite". Trump Populism was at its core a temper tantrum against “the elite” by “the people” without defining what any of it meant. This is why the Republican National Committee abandoned all reason and decided that the RNC Platform was just Trump’s platform without defining what that was or enacting a failsafe in the event that Trump lost.
Populism is a loser strategy. Trump’s performance showed it. The future is free markets and limited government. It will be left to right-thinking Republicans to show the way.